Ita with finding products that agree with ya hair is rewarding! It really makes the hhj a lot easier. Oh, I forgot to tell you that I actually have a gel that is actually moisturizing. Its a curl defining.gel, but its really moisturizing. I have another one I may try out at a later time.

Simplicity (imo) truly is the way to go. My friend whose been natural for a few months said that if she knew natural hair was going to be this easy she would have done it a long time ago. I told her early on that she just needs to keep it simple and pay attention to her hair.

My other friend whose been natural for 2 yrs. Is often frustrated with her hair (imo) does entirely too muc of the wrong stuff and isn't consistent with the good stuff. I listen to her and give her suggestions. But for the most part, I stopped going into deep detail bc she's not ready to be consistent or realistic with her hair.

Good that you've got a gel that's moisturizing, that's just a plus besides the sleek styling abilities or switching up the appearance of your curls.

And yes yes yes it's really simple as long as you have the right products. It's just finding the right products that can be quite a journey. Or learning how to apply them properly.

Good thing that the first friend you mentioned is having a ball with her hair journey so far, which means she's probably already got a hold of the right products for her hair which is great! Though I did have fun moments during my hair journey despite long term usage of wrong shampoos and conditioners.

It's unfortunate that your other friend isn't realistic or letting the information truly sink in. In due time hopefully.

Oh by the way I still have to pay attention to some sections of my hair even with the good conditioner because some soak up the moisture quicker than others so I do have to make sure that the areas prone to dryness get a little more love than the other sections.So that is one thing that hasn't changed lol. But who knows, time will tell.

Hey ladies, I've straightened my hair on low heat. It's much easier to do now that it's properly moisturized.I have straight fluffy hair, like a blow out.

I flat ironed without doing anything before, just on dry hair since my hair was clean and I didn't use any styling products. I wanted to see how quick I'd get it straight(which was in one or two passes).It was after watching a video of someone with a similar texture as mine straightening her hair on 400 degrees F with the flat iron only as well, that I got in the mood to do it now the weather permits it and also got even more curious as to how my hair would respond now that it's moisturized properly.

Also...I used a combing brush for the comb and chase method. In a way I was wanting to get the blow out look for a while so it's all good. I will just wrap it either tonight or another day and see what that does for the look.

I did not have a braid out or anything which probably would've saved time, but I got it straight in less than an hour.

So I have noticed an overall time saving now whether curly or straight now that my hair is getting the moisture it needs.

Will see if I am going to wrap it and then give my hair a proper trim.I did not use any grape seed oil. I just want to monitor my hair behavior without an additional oil at the moment.

It's just an overall different experience than before. Before I'd only get this result using more heat and more passes...on a braid out.

Ooh, Ritle-Skittle!!!! Luv ya hair!!! It looks so lush! I so agree that how u prep your hair prior to using heat is essential. Your new products really aided with how lush your hair looks. It looks well moisturized! Great job!

Just wanted to make y'all giggle with some of the comments and shy glances, and flat out gawking Cleo has bought in the last couple of weeks. Since I've been doing the plait outs, I've received so many compliments, specifically from AA women in their 50s. I have a Muslim lady that works in the building I do. She wears pretty hijabs. So, we're in the mail room and she says: luv ya hair! When we bump into each other and Cleo is out, she always tells me that she luvs it.

Another lady, who has blonde dreads, was in her car (as I was walking to my car) was literally almost upon me with her SUV, stops and says: luv ya hair! I gathered myself bc I thought I was about to be hit and said thank you.

One of my neighbor's mother hadn't seen Cleo out in awhile. She said: Is that all you! I told her it was. She said Cleo was running away from my head bc she is so big!

Went to Big Lots and the cashier appears to be transitioning. She was wearing her hair in this cute, funky fro like do. So, she tells me how much she luvs my hair. I give her luv too! She said ya hair is just gorgeous!

My coworkers told me that Cleo is just so fun and a giver of life! Lol! One of them told me that my outfit and hair made me look like a Black Panther! Lol!

Oh, and big hair brings the youngins to the yard which surprised me. I have had several teenagers and 20 something's honk and tell me that I'm sexy and the hair is the biz. I thank them and kim'ing.

I also met a hair twin who let me know that she paid good money for her wig and I'm walking around with it naturally. We high fives each other! Lol!

I love the fact that I can add a teenie bit of the conditioner without it reverting. So now I have experienced what you were talking about when you were wearing your hair straight and moisturized it with water based moisturizers. I did add a little bit more on the ends and some did start to revert a little bit because that was a little too much there, but not as much. I did so because I wanted to see if I could add moisture without it reverting and was thinking about rocking a sleeker look.I slept in two braids though instead of wrapping at the moment, I am curious about wrapping though. I will have to get a paddle brush I think though, I will be able to wrap better than with a wide toothed comb and my hands lol, so I'll get one tomorrow if I don't forget.

My hair feels moisturized and still smells good and will smell even better now that I have added a little bit of the conditioner.

Despite the progress, I still have another hurdle to go over, which will give a minor set back in length, I am like... "I can snip those ends once my hair grows out more" , but then I am also like "But maybe my hair won't retain that length unless I snip those ends" , it's been a long time coming though but I don't wanna . Awe well, time will tell if I will snip now or later.

About your compliments, I've enjoyed reading about them and I bet you had loads of fun receiving them... aside from thinking you were about to get hit by an SUV that is.Hahaha the comment about Cleo running away from your head because she's so big was hilarious! It's always nice to receive compliments.And the hair twin moment with the high five was cool.You go girl! I am curious about Cleo, especially since you mentioned her Rudy Huxtable-ness in the other thread.

I mostly received comments on the fragrance of my hair. So credit goes to the conditioners for that. But it's not like I've been doing that much to my hair anyway.

lol, I did receive this comment when I just started using the new conditioner that brought me back to my youth for a moment that popped in my head. Someone saying "hi curlycrown" (which is the best translation I could find for the word used), which is something I remembered being called sometimes when I was little. It was a bit odd coming from a stranger lol, so while I was trying to process if he was perhaps a neighbor from down the street or not all I could say was "...hello", his facial expression gave me dirty ole man though so I just kept it moving hahaha.

Your welcome, Ritle Skittle! I mean it I really like ya mane. I'm glad you had a good experience with moisturizing while straight. Yeah, the ends can be tricky. I know for me since I don't trim often, in my mind I'm thinking I need to give it more moisture. But, that's thinking like a curly head. I think if you use a teeny amount of moisture and use more oil to seal it helps keep the ends from reverting. Good smelling hair is the biz, Curly Girl!

Yeah, the compliments were nice! It's just so weird to me bc Cleo and I have been together for almost 10 yrs, so were used to each other. Plus, I've always had thick hair( both relaxed and natural), so I'm used to the Is that all you? Or You sure gotta whole bunch of hair comments, which I used to find annoying bc in my circle, healthy thick hair was the norm. But, I knew that outside my circle, it wasn't . But, all in all it was nice.

I'm thinking I may wash Cleo this weekend. Don't really need to, but I might. As much as I like my plaits and plait outs, I need something different. Maybe I'll revisit some plaited buns. Oh I forgot I have these flexi curlers. I could play around with them. Idk yet.

I vented a little in the Random Hair Thoughts in the Natural section bout Cleo getting on my nerves this week, specifically, yesterday. I was having a bad hair day and just let her do what she wanted. I received soo many compliments. I just wore her out bc the plait out turned to a fail at home. So, I just wetted her down, scrunched in some leave in and bounced angrily out the house. I even took my spray bottle so I could put her in a puff, which I did. When I came back in the office with the puff, three of my coworkers forced me to take my hair out! I still hated it, but it was what it was. Lol!

You're right about the moisture, a little goes a very long way, but it's a good thing that I made that mistake with my ends. That way I will know for next time what not to do,lol.

And yes I love love looooove good smelling hair. I really missed that with other moisturizing techniques.

I can imagine that compliments may seem to come out of left field if you don't have the feeling you've been doing anything out of the ordinary. But I guess that the massive mane grabs attention and if it's thick too, well double the admiration. But it's always nice to receive.

Oh you just want a fresh start for whatever style you will be visiting so you might wash your hair this weekend, I get that. Especially with styles you want to wet set, you might as well wash it if it's going to be wet, totally get that sentiment lol.

Owh I haven't used my flexi rods in a long time. I wish I had the jumbo ones, less time consuming, hahaha, but awe well.

Awww bad hair moments suck, even if they aren't received as such by other people. It's a good thing it was received well so that you won't stay stuck in that bad hair day moment.Oh I have had those just put it in a ponytail and call it a day moments, because my hair was looking far from presentable and most def. not compliment worthy on those days.Lol at your persuasive coworkers. Sometimes the hair just does what it does.

Speaking of wash days, I am not too fond of them... well the after math that is. My hair always wants to act all clingy (not literally though, since it's hair we're talking about it could be taken that way LOL), oh wait... needy is a better word. I have to give it a bit more moisture when I T-shirt dry it.(My hair dryer is acting a fool so diffusing is not an option.), I guess air drying and then adding moisture would make it less needy perhaps but I can not be bothered, lol.

Well ladies,

I've purchased another bottle of shampoo(only had one and though it will take quite some time to be empty I figured it's always handy to have one extra.) and an extra bottle of conditioner since the 10% discount was still going on. It's not a big discount, but it's something.

I've decided to not trim and just wait for my hair to grow out some more before I snip anything because on some strands a trim means split ends so I'd have to cut above an area and my hair grows in different lengths and no...just no ... lol. There are plenty of good strands in between there but they are mixed in with the faulty end strands... I just can't right now LOL. This length flatters me the most at the moment so I'm just going to wait for it to grow out more so that if I have to do a minor chop anywhere that I'll be comfortable with it,lol.

Because especially hair in front an inch or two can already make so much difference in the overall appearance of my hair, especially with the way it curls.

Oh and I forgot to buy the paddle brush, there was still time to go back after I ran my errands and I realized that I had forgotten to get the paddle brush but the weather was slightly rainy and my feet were hurting so I just put my feet up, lol.

I've just been sleeping with my hair in two braids over night.

And man did the humidity make my hair massive as the day progressed.

I ended up using a headband once the poofiness became less flattering on me.

I am here thinking about what I am going to do with my hair. Cause a giant flat twist I was trying to do fell flat, lol. I might practice a bit and who knows it might actually end up fit to rock outdoors.

Maybe I will give some updo's a try... who knows.

But other than that, nothing special. I guess I might add a dimesize of moisture to my hair.

Oh by the way I forgot to add earlier that another reason why I am not using any other products on my hair right now is because they have silicones in them and I am contemplating on how to flawlessly transition from one washing routine to another where cleansers are concerned but on the other hand, I could give the baking soda wash a try for that or perhaps add apple cider vinegar to the almost fully natural shampoo in a separate bottle and just hope the semi-permanent color won't do a disappearing act from my hair lol.

Well, I didn't wash my hair last weekend bc I ended up getting engulfed with cleaning and rearranging my living and dining areas. So, I just did the basics: water, moisturize, and seal. Ritle- Skittle, I feel you on the wash day. Sometimes it's easy and other times its like I don't want to do this😖. So, I push it back😏. So, today I rocked Cleo in a high puff w/ tendrils coming down. I was channeling my inner Janelle Monae😉.I really don't expect to get Cleo a washing until probably next weekend bc I'm still doing home improvements.

I'm ready for the cool weather. I'm ready for straight Cleo. I'm thinking of a purple-black rinse for the Fall. I want a lil change. That's about all for right now.

I didn't wash my hair, I just rocked it in waves from sleeping in braids.

Today I rocked it in a really high side pony with preserved waves from sleeping with my hair in two braids two days ago coming down on the side of my face.

It's easy, playful and humidity proof.

I did not feel like braiding it yesterday so I pineappled and then made a loose bun out of the hair that was left out to preserve the waves.

The weather is having mood swings so it went from sunny to rainy to sunny to rainy in a matter of hours after a nice and sunny morning. Luckily for me I didn't get caught in the rain and my hair pretty much looks similar to the way I left.

I did have minor frizz around the edge of my hair, but didn't use any gel or anything to smooth it down and couldn't find any of my matching head ties or such for the outfit I was wearing so I just used a little bit of conditioner and smoothed the pony a bit. I totally forgot about my toothbrush hair brush lol, but I was in a hurry as I didn't want to be caught in the rain since it had just stopped pouring down.

Could not be bothered with the flat twists anymore this week, maybe some other time, I was catching up on some movie marathons, so I couldn't be bothered practicing flat twisting in front of a mirror.

As for now I am just going to slacken the ponytail and pretty much do the same thing for sleeping like I did yesterday, it's so simple....plus my satin scarf did a disappearing act on me yesterday.....ugh, lol. So I gave up looking for it for now, it will turn up when it turns up, I can not be bothered hahaha.

I'm going to buy the paddle brush tomorrow since I have to run some other errands anyway.

@Luv duv purple black rinse sounds really nice! Would love to see how that turns out!

I can imagine that you just couldn't be bothered with a wash, especially if it needs extra TLC on that first wash day like mine does.

Plus with rearranging stuff the last thing you want to do is spending too much time on your hair.

Well ladies, I saw someone with a similar hair type walking around in town and now I can't wait to wash my hair and returning to the regular, lol.

I do however love the length of the hair hanging from the high side pony, which I decided to rock again. The humidity fluffed out the waves more and the clothes and bold lipstick I was wearing gave it a different look, so it's not like my hair looked the same like yesterday, that's my excuse and I am sticking with it.

Finally purchased the paddle brush, so I can cross that off my to-do-list.

I'm pineappling again tonight. I might wear a bun tomorrow. Will have to see what kind of bun. One thing is for sure, it will have to be a bun that wouldn't look the same curly. Will try my hand at a giant bun perhaps...if I can pull it off. I really wanted to slacken my pony tonight so I didn't give it a try, but awe well... guess whatever I feel like doing to my hair tomorrow morning will be what I'll be rocking. I am not even a hundred percent sure with my outfit choice either, so for now I'm just going to relax my mind before hitting the sack.

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